a1128: Used clothing imports from Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Robert Benodin <r.benodin@worldnet.att.net>

Used clothing imports from Haiti
3-7-02
The source is DR1 from the Dominican Republic.

Dominican apparel and footwear manufacturers complain today in an El Caribe
story of the dumping of used clothes in the Dominican market. Most of it is
imported from Haiti.
Law 991 dating back to 30 August 1945 prohibits the manufacture, import, or
sale of used mattresses, pillows or clothing. But this commerce has been
going on for years and is gaining in volume, reports El Caribe.
The government approved the operations of Worldwide Clothing and Globo in
free zones in southwestern Pedernales and in the East. These firms import
packs of used clothes for sorting and export to Haiti. The clothes are later
exported from Haiti back to the DR through a long legal and illegal
distribution network involving custom agents, the military and hundreds of
small-time Dominican and Haitian entrepreneurs.
Store owners on Duarte Avenue complain that while they have to pay 1.5% on
gross sales, the 12% ITBIs sales tax, power, light and telephone bills, the
informal merchants are allowed to set up their shacks right in front of the
larger stores. They feel this is unfair competition.
David Cortes, of the Association of Jean Manufacturers said the competition
has forced the closing of 90 companies that manufactured jeans. Of 150
companies in operation in 1998, only 60 are left and production is down 70%
due to the unfair competition coming over the border from Haiti.
Likewise, Celestino Jesus Dieguez of the Dominican Association of Footwear
Manufacturers (Adocalza) says the situation is critical. He said that 50 of
75 footwear factories have gone bankrupt, and of the 900 small workshops,
there are only 60 left.